Operational Update

RNS Number : 9349K

Ovoca Gold PLC

29 August 2012

 

Ovoca Gold Plc ("Ovoca Gold" or the "Company")

Operational Update

Ovoca Gold is pleased to provide an update on its ongoing 2012 field work on its Stakhanovskiy and Rassoshinskaya projects.

Highlights

Stakhanovskiy Project:

·    Processing of 16,586 tonnes (for the 2012 calendar year to date) of primary rock from the Berezitoviy and Zabolocheniy ore bodies by gravity concentration plant

·    10,667 tonnes mined from Zabolocheniy, 5,288 tonnes from Albitoviy, and 2,285 tonnes from Berezitoviy bulk sample trenches

Rassoshinskaya Project:

·    Podgorniy Prospect: Three HQ core drill holes intercepted:

1.2 metres at 10.40 g/t gold and 101.00g/t silver from 26.0 metres depth

2.9 metres at 7.94 g/t gold and 18.70 g/t silver from 34.4 metres depth

0.9 metres at 10.00 g/t gold and 11.50 g/t silver from 356 metres depth

·    Bazaar Prospect: New high sulphidation type pyrite mineralization, with gold grade unknown, discovered within a 600 metre trench and from 1,050 metres of core drilling

·    Agromniy Prospect: 1,000 metres of surface trenching exposed a high grade lead-silver (and potential gold) quartz vein at least 250 metres in length

At the Stakhanovskiy Project, the bulk sampling mill continues to perform in line with expectations. Assay results are being received from the Knelson concentrator tailings and shaking table products.

At the Rassoshinskaya Project, NQ-sized diamond core drilling has been undertaken at the Bazaar Prospect, located 2km to the east of Podgorniy and 65km to the north of the Olcha JORC Inferred resource. The final assay results at the Zet Prospect demonstrate that the typical mineralisation at this prospect is composed of small high grade gold-silver quartz-adularia veining within a broad zone of low grade, but anomalous, gold and silver values. At the Podgorniy Prospect, moderate grade gold mineralisation was shown to continue to 356m vertical depth from surface. Scenarios for significant gold-silver resources at Podgorniy and Zet have now been reduced.

Kirill Golovanov, CEO of Ovoca Gold plc, remarked: "July 2012 has seen significant volumes of planned field work completed. Now that blasting is completed for bulk sampling, diamond core drilling has started at the Stakhanovskiy Project with Wardell Armstrong International consultants working with us to prepare an updated resource estimate by the end of this year."

"At the Rassoshinskaya Project, field work was focused during the month on our new prospect, Bazaar, with trenching and diamond drilling exposing a significant extensive high sulphidation alteration pyrite-rich system. The first assays should be received soon. At the Agromniy Prospect, a trench exposed a 250m long quartz vein containing lead and silver with very high gold and silver assays from surface float samples (previously announced in the 2011 Annual Report). More trenching is planned to test the widths along this strike length. With the current targets at Bazaar and Agromniy, and a further porphyry copper-gold target to test at the Vist Prospect, exploration success for this field season may be achieved".

Rassoshinskaya Project

Zet Prospect

All finalised assay results were received from diamond drilling. The historical and current results show that although there are some high gold and silver assay grades within this 2.5km long multiple quartz vein system, the widths of mineralisation are not large enough to warrant a resource drill out at this stage. The drilling and trenching suggest that Zet could contain enough mineralisation to be developed as a small open pit satellite mining operation if another larger orebody could be developed on the project. A full assessment of all exploration results with recommendations for field work is to be undertaken next year.

Podgorniy Prospect

A deep drill hole tested the extent of the depth of gold mineralisation in the central zone. A significant gold intersection was found deep in this drill hole and indicates that gold-silver mineralisation persists at considerable depth in the central zone. Drill results are shown in Table 1. A total of 162 samples assays are awaited.

 Table 1: Podgorniy Prospect diamond core drill intersections, Fire Assay 50g, >1g/t gold

Drill Hole Name	Down hole depth (m)	Depth from Surface (m)	Interval (m)	Gold Grade g/t	Silver Grade g/t
PGDD-48	74.8	76.3	1.5	2.36	53.80
PGDD-49	14.6	15.5	0.9	1.20	0.50
PGDD-49	19.4	19.9	0.5	3.01	34.50
PGDD-51	26.0	27.2	1.2	10.40	101.00
PGDD-51	169.6	170.6	1.0	1.00	2.47
PGDD-54	182.5	183.8	1.3	1.53	3.99
PGDD-55	34.4	37.3	2.9	7.94	18.70
PGDD-55	164.8	165.8	1.0	1.55	1.02
PGDD-55	167.8	168.8	1.0	1.04	3.19
PGDD-57	229.5	230.4	0.9	6.00	2.47
PGDD-57	356.0	356.9	0.9	10.00	11.50
PGDD-57	358.0	361.2	3.2	3.37	3.94

Bazaar Prospect

Five NQ core drill holes for 1,050m were completed. Two diamond drill holes were completed beneath a single 600m long trench where quartz-pyrite stockwork and barite mineralisation was discovered. These two holes indicated significant alteration and tectonic structures trended towards an unconformity. An additional three drill holes were completed along 800m of strike towards and across the unconformity, west of the trench. A total of 196 samples for assay were taken from the most favorable zones initially. In the most westerly located drill hole (BDD-04) intense silica, pyrite, clay, and white mica alteration was discovered around the contact between Devonian volcanic rhyolite and Proterozoic basalt. The drill hole was extended to 289m depth, well beyond its planned 150m depth. The drill hole continued in 5% pyrite alteration. This is the first time high sulphidation type mineralisation has been discovered at Rassoshinskaya with extensive veining, breccia and metasomatic associated pyrite. This type of gold mineralisation is common in the South American Andes but not in the Russian northeast and illustrates the potential for a new deposit type that may have been overlooked by previous government geological expeditions.

Agromniy Prospect

An east-west oriented trench of approximately 1,000m was completed, which uncovered basement rocks beneath colluvium which was found to have rock chips anomalous in gold and silver. A continuous quartz vein containing extensive silver and lead mineralisation, at least 250 metres long, was exposed on the contact with Cambrian dolomite and Devonian tuff. Three trenches are planned perpendicular to the vein to assess the width, and channel samples are to be collected. Five chip sample composites from the trench have been taken for assay.

Stakhanovskiy Project

The bulk sampling plant is continuing to process budgeted volumes at Stakhanovskiy. Since 3 June 2012, the hard rock gravitation bulk sampling plant has averaged 204 tonnes per each 24 hour period. 16,586 tonnes of hard rock from the Berezitoviy and Zabolocheniy ore bodies have been processed to date for 2012. The gravity concentrates and samples from the bulk sampling mill on the Stakhanovskiy site have been collected. All Knelson concentrates from Berezitoviy (original sample 3,561 tonnes) have been processed by shaking table (4,284 kg) in Magadan and the products are being fire assayed by Alex Stewart Laboratories in Moscow. Some assay results have been received but verification is required. Additional assays from mill tailings are needed before an average gold grade for the bulk sample from two different trenches at Berezitoviy can be calculated.

At Zabolocheniy, a 25m long by 0.9m wide, continuous quartz vein containing extensive visible gold was exposed in basement rock from a 50m by 20m rectangular bulk sampling surface trench. This illustrates that the Company's decision to bulk sample test the deposit is well founded, as our prediction is that the resource gold grade may well have been previously underestimated due to a coarse gold distribution.

Glossary of Technical Terms

"barite"	Baryte, or barite, (BaSO4) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate;
"basalt"	an igneous volcanic fine-grained rock with low quartz and minerals rich in iron and magnesium;
"breccia and metasomatic"	fragments of broken generally cemented rock and highly altered rock resulting from fluids entering the rock;
"bulk sampling"	a mineral resource exploration technique that takes large samples of material from the resource body under question to have a statistical relevant sample size for analysis;
"Cambrian"	the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from approximately 542 to 488.3 million years ago;
"Devonian"	a geologic period of the Paleozoic Era spanning from 416 million years ago to 359.2 million years ago;
"diamond drilling"	drilling conducted by a drill bit 7 - 9 centimeters in diameter with diamond parts that cuts through rock and preserves a core of the drill hole for extraction and examination;
"dolomite"	a carbonate rock mostly composed of the mineral calcium magnesium carbonate;
"gravity concentration plant and bulk sampling mill"	a mill or plant that processes large bulk samples of rock material from a resource body by crushing, grinding and concentration of the heaviest rock constituents such as sulphides and gold;
"high sulphidation mineralisation"	mineralisation resulting from hot acidic fluids derived from magmas that react with host rocks;
"Knelson concentrator"	a type of gravity concentration apparatus, predominantly used in the gold mining industry. It is used for the recovery of fine particles of free gold;
"porphyry copper gold"	a crystallized rock, typically with large and very small crystals (porphyritic), having hairline fractures that contain copper, gold and other metals;
"Proterozoic"	a geological eon representing the time just before the proliferation of complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from Greek and means "earlier life". The Proterozoic Eon extended from 2,500 million years ago to 542 million years ago;
"pyrite"	Iron sulphides commonly associated with gold;
"quartz-pyrite stockwork"	Quartz and pyrite veins that are extensive and veins that are at many different angles;
"rhyolite"	an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic (silica-rich >69%) composition;
"shaking table"	shaking tables are designed for wet gravity-based separation of minerals such as gold with the products being tailings and gold concentrates with other heavy minerals such as sulphides;
"silica, pyrite, clay, and white mica"	minerals that are frequently associated with high sulphidation mineralisation;
"tailings"	the materials left over after the process of separating the gold-rich fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore;
"tuff"	a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption; and
"Unconformity"	a surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous;

Contacts:

Ovoca Gold Plc

Kirill Golovanov [phone]

Davy - NOMAD, ESM Adviser and Joint Broker

John Frain/Daragh O'Reilly [phone]

Fairfax I.S. PLC - Joint Broker

Ewan Leggat/Laura Littley [phone]

The above information has been compiled and verified by Mr. Darren Allingham for the purposes of the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in June 2009. Mr. Allingham is a member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and The Australian Institute of Geoscientists and is a JORC (2004) competent person for the type of minerals being reported on in this statement. Mr. Allingham is a Geologist with over 17 years of work experience in gold exploration, resource estimation and mining, in thirteen different countries and has Bachelors and Bachelors with honours degrees in geology from The Australian National University and The University of Queensland, Australia. Mr. Allingham consents to the inclusion in the announcement of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears.

 

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